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What did Buddha say about blacks and whites?
footiam
Veteran
in Philosophy
Is there anywhere in the sutras that discuss the existence of blacks and whites or it humans who have invented the different races in our world and even coloured them blacks, whites, yellows, blues and browns.
0
Comments
While Buddha preached against the caste system, many of his most important disciples came from the Brahman class and a bit of this bias crept in. In "The Sutra of Cause and Effect" supposedly the Buddha gave a rather lengthy list of attributes a person is born with and what actions in a previous life caused this. In a rather offhand way he is supposed to have said "The person who hinders the bright splendor of the Buddha is born black and thin." But his list of causes and effects includes such gems as people born handsome had patient minds in a previous life, while being born ugly meant you got angry a lot in your past life. Also being poor came from being stingy in your previous life, etc.
See, nobody at that time had a clue about genetics and the sometimes strange results across generations of primary and hidden genes that are passed on by both mother and father and sometimes skips generations, and certainly didn't know about how environment can have an effect on fetal development. They were at the "mother was frightened by a cow so baby has cow shaped birthmark" stage. This cause and effect karma theory was the best they could come up with that seemed to fit the observation.
How about a blue woad or henna tattoo on each palm?
A Palm
'Blue
Blood'
Palm b
'Buddha
Palm'
Yes all over Asia people have whitening creams and solutions because that is what they want to look like. And most white people want a tan, do you know why? It is quite simple, over years and years of marketing, advertising and pretty much brain washing, it has been instilled into the populous that how you look naturally is not good enough, so you nee to look different and or the opposite to how you do naturally. So go and buy these harmful whitening creams, go and soak up those harmful UV rays or those tanning creams, but of course spend your money in doing so.
So it is unlikely that he saw any Africans.
However, he accepted people from all different castes.
Even today, in India, people of the lowest caste turn to Buddhism to escape from
the discrimination.
The trend may now be accentuated with western media.
~ Buddha.
Take a step back a moment and think about this, what makes a person, a sane person, put harmful agents on their skin or sit hours and hours under harmful UV lights? It is pretty insane when you think about it objectively. I have seen various items on channel 3 here of people having very bad reactions to these skin whitening creams. But yea the idea was there before I guess but capitalism has blown it it up to huge proportions.
moreover, these days in India it is better to be in lower caste than in higher caste, because of the advantages people get through reservations for these lower castes in education, job etc which are run through government. in a practical way, getting born in a higher caste in India these days is a curse and getting born in a lower caste is a gift.
Buddha, being a Prince of the upper class during a time when he might have been expected to lead an army or deal with ambassadors, would have been given a first class education by local standards. He was probably aware of the vast Chinese empire and the pale skinned barbarians that liked to invade from the West. Wonder if his education included knowledge of black skinned tribes and strange animals like giraffes living somewhere out there?
I'm all for abolishing racism, however I will not indulge in self flagellation because I was born white in a first world country.
Raven.
What motivated or drove you to post this question as I don't understand where it came from or where it is going? I just see a jumble and confusion of comments that have no real context.
My mother explained to me that this was the height of female fashion about three-hundred-years ago.
Hot chick or what?
The modern spirit might be:
Not by birth is one a Booddy Cat; not by birth is one a bra-man (woman? trans-vestite? breastless being?)
. . . 'serious debate' on the race to the 'White House' is now resumed . . .
:crazy:
It could be Uncle Tom's cabin or the idiosyncrasies of the different races in the community that inspired this question. Never mind. We don't have to understand all the time where things come from and where things are going. It is good enough if we understand the present. The confusion.